Rory McIlroy admits that he was wrong to hope for a merger deal between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf but he does have sympathy for the players who have had the “rug pulled from under their feet” after it was confirmed that the PIF would be pulling out of the Saudi backed tour.
One of McIlroy’s closest friends Ricky McCormack caddies for Tom McKibbin on LIV and he revealed that the players were in the dark over the future of the breakaway tour. Having previously lobbied for a coalition potentially between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV, McIlroy is happy that the PGA Tour stood on its own two feet and avoided getting into bed with the seemingly doomed Saudi tour.
“I’m glad I was wrong. I can admit when I’m wrong, and that was one that I did get wrong,” McIlroy said ahead of the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club.
“I think it was always a possibility to happen. Look, I think everyone knows like with everything that’s happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do; but whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that’s a tricky road to navigate.”
When a framework agreement was announced in 2023, McIlroy was one of the leading voices backing the merger of the three main tours as ‘good for golf’ but as the likelihood of that decreased over time he believes it is no surprise that LIV Golf is in turmoil.
“I feel like a lot of us in this room, including me, we almost knew before the players did that this was going to happen. Like I was hearing about this back in March, April time.
“Look, I have friends over there. One of my best friends, Ricky, caddies for Tom McKibbin, who’s over there, and I would talk to him all the time about what was going on. I was saying to Ricky, even before Mexico, Have you guys heard any of this stuff? He was like, No, everything seems okay over here.
“It just feels like the rug was pulled from under their feet and everyone was sort of blind sided by it. But again, that’s the risk that those guys chose to take. As I said, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.”
McIlroy arrives looking for a third Wanamaker Trophy having been crowned PGA champion in 2012 and 2014. But since the major moved to a May slot in 2019 his record has been mixed with three top-10 finishes and a best of T-7th.
“Honestly, since the tournament has moved to May, my results haven’t been that great here at the PGA. I like the style of golf,” he said of the golf course this week. “I like the bunkering. There’s a lot of bunkers. I think it provides quite a nice bit of variety with shorter par-4s, a couple of longer par-4s. The par-3s, there’s three pretty long ones and a shorter one.
“I think in this day and age I’m not sure if it’s going to test all aspects of your bag. There’s going to be a lot of — again, as I said, strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent.
“It’s, basically, bash driver down there and then figure it out from there, which I think is a lot of these newer — newly renovated — I think about Oak Hill in 2023, here. When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.
“But the greens are — as I said at the start, the greens are the main focus this week, and I think getting yourself in the right sections of the greens, making sure you leave yourself below the hole for the most part. That’s the key this week,” added McIlroy who is joined by Shane Lowry, Pádraig Harrington and McKibbin this week.
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